Illegal drug-using trends among students in a Spanish university in the last decade (1984-1994).

A sample of 2,086 university students in Valladolid (Spain) were surveyed in 1994 to assess their current use of illicit drugs. That information was used as a baseline to show the trends in the last decade in order to compare two other studies carried out on a similar target population in 1984 and 1990. Of those surveyed, 28.3% had taken some illicit drug within their lifetime, 16.7% in the previous year, and 7.2% in the previous month. Cannabis was the most common illicit drug used in the three levels among these students. 14.2 is the average starting age at which inhalants are used and 19.3 for opiates. 49.8% were opposed to any drug legalization. More than a quarter of the students (28.7%) could be considered as a mental disorder case-finding as measured by Golberg's General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), which was much more relevant among illicit drug users than among nonusers. A decrease in illegal drug use frequency among university students has been observed in the last 10 years.